The modern Olympics used to have an art category [theatlantic.com] but most artists don't really go in for head to head competition. You can always start up an international poetry slam governance organization and petition for inclusion [olympic.org] in some future Olympics.

I want them to bring back competing in the nude. It would make wrestling so much more interesting to watch - not to mention the ratings boost it would give to coverage of any of the women's events.
Well, your sentiment is right, but I sure don't want to watch women's weightlifting. The last thing I need to see is some woman's hairy balls.

I've been to a few rodeos where they actually did race chariots. They were fucking crazy and way more dangerous than the chuck wagon races. Pretty sure one was at the Morris Stampede in Manitoba and another in Alberta somewhere. Long time ago. In Morris I saw a couple of wipe outs where the guys got thrown then run over by a dozen horses and a couple of chariots. Happened a few times. No-one died, and that was the amazing part. They got pretty fucked up, but most of the tough bastards walked away. Anyway, w

FTA: Upon contact, nematocysts on the tentacle fire into the prey, and the tentacle itself coils around the prey. Within 30 seconds, most of the remaining tentacles will have already joined in the attack to subdue the struggling prey. Within two minutes, the tentacles will have surrounded the prey and moved it into the opened mouth aperture. Within ten minutes, the prey will have been enclosed within the body cavity, and digestion will have started.
Sounds horrific to me!
With warm regards, a cyclops

Your joking notwithstanding (and the Olympics is of course an excellent example of brand protection going over the top), mentioning the Olympic Games and discussing it here is totally legal.

People are allowed to use brand names and trademarks when talking about a product. That's why we can freely discuss anything Microsoft, Windows, Apple, iPad, IBM, Xerox, etc here without lawyers knocking on Slashdot's door immediately (is Slashdot a registered trademark? I wouldn't be surprised if it is).

I've found for the past few months that polls don't appear on my front page. I then noticed that other items I have checked in my account are not appearing (user space is one). Despite toggling things on and off I see no difference. To get to the polls, I have to log off, get the url, then navigate back when logged in. Any thoughts on how to correct?

I just wish the modern Olympic Games stop already. They've completely perverted the spirit of Pierre de Coubertin who said (in French): L’important dans ces Olympiades, c’est moins d’y gagner que d’y prendre part (the important thing is less winning than participating), especially with the rules that professional athlete can compete now (in case you didn't know, only amateurs were allowed to participate in the earlier days).

With all the palm greasing, the expense on hosting countries (Greece 2004 anyone?), and the double standards going on (like not giving a visa to the Syrian Olympic chief because they don't like the country's ruler), it's enough already.

I just wish the modern Olympic Games stop already. They've completely perverted the spirit of Pierre de Coubertin who said (in French): L’important dans ces Olympiades, c’est moins d’y gagner que d’y prendre part (the important thing is less winning than participating), especially with the rules that professional athlete can compete now (in case you didn't know, only amateurs were allowed to participate in the earlier days).

If I understand it correctly what the "amateurs only" rule really meant was that only Gentlemen could participate. The working class couldn't afford the time to train and participate nor the expenses and that kept the Gentlemen from having to associate with their inferiors as equals.

Boxing is currently strictly amateur-only (though expected to change by the next event).

Football (soccer) is under-21s only (though three players may be older iirc) - and as a result Olympic football is all but ignored by the fans, just compare it's popularity to the world cup or even the European cup(s).

And besides of course there is the question of how to define amateur vs. professional.

The Olympics still is the only thing that can bring people together from all around the world. Where else will you see Israelis and Palestinians, Indians and Pakistanis, etc., all competing in a friendly atmosphere? Sure, the commercialization aspect sucks, and outsiders always try to bring politics into it, and medal-counting misses the whole point, but those are just problems around the edges, not reasons to abandon the whole thing. For the athletes, and for viewers with the right attitude, it's an abs

A few days before the opening it was in the news that some torch bearer of this year's games had offered their torch for sale on ebay. Selling it at a very good price of course.

The comment of the Olympic organisation was in the lines of, "The torch and other items belong to the torch bearer, and they are free to do with it as they like. However we think this sale is not within the Olympic spirit".

Then I really started to wonder how hypocritical they have become. Nowadays the Olympic spirit is about money: t

What kills me is that NBC's coverage here in the US is so fucking heavy on family. Okay, I get it, the gymnast's mom supports him. I understand that the swimmer has a fiance, great.

I don't really fucking care about their families, I just want to watch them compete, and I want to watch everyone else compete, not just a 3 hour long condensing of the American athletes with those God Damned family stories peppered in for human interest.

I honestly believe that Proctor and Gamble are forcing the little stories, because everyone knows that they're a family company, or some other bullshit.

Either way, I agree with you. It's less about the competition among world-class amateur athletes, and the spirit of camaraderie through competition, and more of a dick swinging contest. Just like everything else, it's managed to become a competition that money and power can purchase. Fuck it.

To the contrary, it wasn't full armor. The participants wore the grieves, helmet and aspis (shield) of the Hoplite soldiers. Besides that, they were nude. Later on, they did away with the grieves. Still, I'll give it to you that it was somewhat useful.

I would think that in most cases a "serious sport" is totally pointless. Most of the sports serve no purpose other than enjoyment (of the competitors and/or spectators). Some sports may involve skills transferable to more practical endeavours, fighting or generally tasks involving endurance, but even then the scope of their practical usefulness seems pretty limited.

Personally, I enjoy watching beach volley ball occasionally. I find that volleyball is more interesting and dramatic when there are only a fe

To quote Wikipedia: "Pankration was a martial art introduced into the Greek Olympic Games in 648 BC and founded as a blend of boxing and wrestling but with almost no rules save disallowing biting and gouging the opponent's eyes out." Yes, killing the opponent is a valid way to win.

There is even a story of a competitor who was loosing badly, but in a last ditch effort jabbed his hand into the abdomen of his competitor and pulled out his competitor's intestines.

Given that the Olympics are largely a race to see what performance enhancing substances will stay ahead of random testing; and given that all of these "amateur" athletes are actually full time paid professionals just hoping for a fat sponsorship deal; and given that corporate money and sponsorship is the REAL purpose of the games, I'd like to propose:

The Truth in Advertising Games - Money is No Object, Athletes can use any and all drugs they like, And sponsors get to choose the winners.

Most modern people do not care about anything historical, and know even less than that. That is *why* history keeps repeating itself, most people think its irrelevant and meaningless. I expect most people think anything that happened before *they* were born as the Dark Ages.

Perhaps, but I think the poll results show that most people aren't interested in the modern Olympics. I mean no disrespect to the athletes competing in it, but I am genuinely not interested at all. So I chose "Pong".

Personally, my favourite events of the modern summer Olympics are gymnastics and diving - both of which are highly technical sports where an individual competitor is seeking to force their body into performing feats of strength, agility and precision.

Most of the traditional Olympic sports were most directly adversarial. So I choose hydra killing as a compromise.

Or maybe they realize it's a silly question, and therefore gave a silly answer? I voted chariot racing, FWIW, because it's the only (real) one that I would actually watch. Wrestling is homoerotic enough without being nude.